Taylor Sheridan’s The Madison is officially here, and the new series is already getting a lot of buzz. While the highly anticipated show was originally slated as a Yellowstone spin-off, in the months leading up to the series premiere, Taylor changed the narrative, cementing the storyline in a Montana-based realm of its own. If you pay attention, though, you’ll notice a familiar face.
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
Danielle Vasinova, who previously appeared in 1923 as Ata Waipa, a Comanche woman who witnessed Marshal Kent on a slaughtering spree while in pursuit of Teonna Rainwater, is cast as Kestrel Harris, an Indigenous woman married to Montana rancher Cade Harris, in The Madison. While she’s the only previous Yellowstone universe actor to make an appearance in Taylor’s new show, Danielle is tight-lipped about whether or not her role could be an easter egg hinting at an eventual intergenerational connection. “That would be a Taylor question,” she tells Country Living.
As for what she was willing and able to share during our sit-down? What drew her to Taylor’s scripts, the serendipity of landing not one but two of his roles, and the details of her real life that made landing the parts especially rewarding.
The Taylor Sheridan Trajectory
1923 and The Madison debuted roughly four years apart, but Taylor held casting calls for the roles just weeks apart. At the time, Danielle had low expectations of landing either role but felt compelled to at least try.
“It's pretty crazy—I was really, to be honest with you, at my wits' end—things weren't going right, and I was ready to quit acting,” she reveals. “I was doing a shoot for Condé Nast in Cappadocia—I was going to spend the summer in Europe—and something told me to come back. It was really bizarre.”
When Danielle returned to the States, she traveled to New York to see her family. It was there that she learned she landed an audition for 1923. “I put myself on tape, and the next week I got an audition for The Madison, so I put myself on tape for that, too,” she exclaims. “It was wild; the whole thing, how it all happened; you can't even write this stuff… I ended up booking, almost back-to-back, both of the shows.”
The way Danielle sees it, her audition and booking process was nothing short of kismet. “Horses are in my blood—since I was three years old, they called me ‘Lead Butt,’ because I would bring my horse down to the end of the field and turn around and give him a little tap, and then we'd just cruise, and we would just gallop down to the end of the fence and stop,” Danielle reminisces. “So I've always, always, always felt that I was right for this world. It just took this kind of divine intervention.”
Danielle reveals that ever since December 12, 2019, when she “died for three minutes and came back to life” after contracting COVID-19, she has experienced countless experiences that feel nothing less than miraculous, from landing dream roles to getting to ride breathtaking horses in the most incredible places.
A Role That Hits Close to Home
As for dream roles, in 1923, Danielle played a Comanche tribal woman; in The Madison, she’s a modern-day indigenous woman married to a white rancher. Part Cherokee and Sioux herself, Danielle felt connected to both characters. There’s something particularly special about getting to play Kestrel Harris, though.
“I relate a lot to her,” Danielle admits. In addition to being from the rodeo circuit (something Danielle dabbles with in real life), Kestrel is the picture of a grounded woman more concerned with reality than staying plugged in. “She represents more of the earth and just doing things in a very simple, very pure, very natural way of living—she understands what's important in life: family, community, love, trust, loyalty, being there for one another,” Danielle explains while gushing over her character.
Her roles as Ata and Kestrel are also the first time Danielle’s gotten to really lean into her heritage on screen. “I represent Montana and the Earth and Mother Nature, and I just feel like it's kind of getting back to basics and to what really matters,” she says.
Life Beyond the Screen
The beauty of her latest Taylor Sheridan role is just how closely it aligns with her real life. So, even when she’s not filming, Danielle can often be found horseback, no matter where she is in the world.
“I love adventure, I love traveling, I love different cultures, and I love horses,” she shares. “I started Western, and then I got into the hunter/jumper world and dressage, side saddle, and have kind of come full circle with the Western.”
Jake Ream, an esteemed horse trainer who played Jake on Yellowstone, is partially to thank for Danielle’s current fascination with Western riding. “He kind of threw me to the wolves at this event in Michigan—five minutes before, he's like, ‘Here's your horse, go out in front of 5,000 people and cut.’ I was like, ‘What?’” Danielle recounts. After somehow managing to win second place in the competition, Danielle found herself wanting to become immersed in it. “I was just like, ‘Wow, this world is really cool, and I want to explore this because I don't want to just be an actor who can do these cutting events—I want to be good; I want to be authentic,’” she says. “So yeah, I’m a horse girl, but the cutting world is new to me, and so I'm going to get a trainer and do this.”
As thrilling as winning is, to Danielle, riding is about far more than entering competitions. She likes to bond with horses all over the world. “I've ridden all over Africa—10 days deep in the bush—I just came back from an adventure in Spain,” she reveals. Her most memorable equestrian moment, however, happened roughly this time last year. “I was in Egypt, and I rode about 10 different Arabian stallions—I grew up with the Coppola movie The Black Stallion; from when I was a little kid, my first crush ever was Alec on The Black Stallion—and so there was this one horse called Gazelle that was my favorite, favorite black stallion that I got to ride in front of the pyramids in Egypt, and just, wow. Need I say more?”
To stay up to date on Danielle’s remarkable horseback adventures, follow her on Instagram and be sure to catch up on The Madison—the first three episodes premiered on Saturday, March 14, with the final three episodes of Season 1 landing on Paramount+ on Saturday, March 21.
